Sarina Bowen

Never ask a question unless you’re sure you want the truth.

I’ve been listening to my father sing for my whole life. I carry him in my pocket on my mp3 player. It’s just that we’ve never met face to face.

My mother would never tell me how I came to be, or why my rock star father and I have never met. I thought it was her only secret. I was wrong.

When she dies, he finally appears. Suddenly I have a first class ticket into my father’s exclusive world. A world I don’t want any part of – not at this cost.

Only three things keep me going: my a cappella singing group, a swoony blue-eyed boy named Jake, and the burning questions in my soul.
There’s a secret shame that comes from being an unwanted child. It drags me down, and puts distance between me and the boy I love.

My father is the only one alive who knows my history. I need the truth, even if it scares me.

The Accidentals:

I received an e-arc of The Accidentals by Sarina Bowen in exchange for an honest review. This has in no way influenced my thoughts and feelings about the book. 

It seems like every couple of months I am reviewing a new book from Sarina Bowen and I have no shame. I just love her books so much that I need to read them all. And I loved The Accidentals just as much as her other books. The Accidentals is Sarina’s first YA novel and I just fell in love with it all, from the characters to the storyline. 

Rachel has known who her father is most of her life, but she has never met him. She listens to his voice on the radio, but she has never heard it spoken to her. But that all changes when Rachel’s mother dies. Suddenly she is thrust into her father’s life of take-out and parties and his first-class lifestyle. She thought that meeting him would be totally different, and as time goes on, secrets start to build and misunderstandings start to appear. When Rachel moves to boarding school, she thought it would change and things do, just not how she expected it to. 

I wasn’t sure how I was going to feel about this book before I started it. Normally not a massive fan of books with singing or music involved. I don’t know why, because I love music. But sometimes I feel like it’s so out of place. Characters just randomly picking up a guitar and playing, or finding out they wow they can sing. But The Accidentals by Sarina Bowen didn’t disappoint and I just loved so much about it. 

I loved Rachel as a protagonist. She was real, raw and had her faults and that is what made The Accidentals such a good read from the start. The grief that Rachel is feeling is so prominent from the start. She is hurting and her life is changing all around her, however, this grief also makes her stronger and throughout the novel, the reader is able to see her really stand strong and take a hold of losing her mother. I really liked Rachel’s love for music and singing and I really wanted her to tell her father sooner, but it did add an extra punch to the book. 

I loved Rachel’s character development throughout The Accidentals. The reader is able to see her grow throughout the book, and it’s not only within her self. Rachel grows and helps those around her really take a leap of faith as such and grow themselves. She has been through a lot and when she is pushed into this new lifestyle it’s hard. But we see her grow to love it as it is. 

The romance in The Accidentals was so adorable that it made my heart squeeze. Jake was so lovely and from their first letters, you could see that he was taken by her. And their first meeting, my heart couldn’t take it. I loved how they didn’t just jump into their relationship and took it all slow. It’s a nice change of pace from the romance books that I have been reading recently. I love that Jake didn’t push, but he also had respect for himself and when there were problems it didn’t just try and move on, he wanted to fix it. I want to see more of these two, but don’t know how my heart will cope. 

The notion of family was a massive theme in The Accidentals and it explores the unconventional family too. Rachel has only ever known her father through his music, so when her mother dies and he comes into the picture it’s a massive shock to her. Not only that, it’s like everything she knew before has changed.

I loved seeing how clueless Rachel’s father was and how he tried and failed many times. I like that he didn’t just hop in the role of father and know everything. They both had to learn new things and how to work with one another. I did feel at times that Rachel’s father didn’t realise the outcome of things and things were left unsaid. Her father’s parents, especially his mother didn’t sit with my great as well. I understood where she was coming from, but gosh it came off wrong and did change a lot of things. 

With all this love for The Accidentals, I do feel that it was slow at times. Especially the start. I was expecting for Rachel to arrive at the boarding school so much earlier than she actually did. This really dragged on the first half of the book or so. But after she arrived everything started to fall into place a lot more. Other than that I really enjoy Sarina’s writing, I love the way that she captures emotions, writes both characters and character arcs. Most of her books have been 4 star reads for me and I don’t see that changing any time soon. 

Overall, I loved The Accidentals by Sarina Bowen. It’s an emotional rollercoaster of a book, but it was so worth it. The Accidentals explores grief, family and finding yourself in this massive world. It’s a coming of age story that is explored through music and love. The romance and friendships are adorable and just added another dimension to the novel. The Accidentals also explores new family and sometimes it’s so hard to come together at times, but in the end, you do love each other. If you are looking for a book that may just pull you to pieces this is for you. 

Have you read The Accidentals by Sarina Bowen yet? What did you think of it? Are you planning on reading it? Let’s Chat!